{"id":135,"date":"2012-02-26T18:57:36","date_gmt":"2012-02-26T17:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=135"},"modified":"2012-02-26T18:57:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T17:57:36","slug":"dead-to-sin-alive-in-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=135","title":{"rendered":"Dead to sin, alive in Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone! We have been blessed in so many ways, not least in peace with God, a hope which will never disappoint us and a joy which overflows even in the midst of suffering. So how then should we live as Christians? Some people in the church in Rome seemed to think that it really doesn\u2019t matter how we live, or the kind of people we are, because the more we sin, the more God will forgive us so the more grace we would then receive. So Paul writes in Romans 6:1,
\n6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
\nThat is the foolish question that people still ask today when we talk about salvation as a free gift from God, not earned or deserved. If grace means that our salvation does not depend in the slightest upon us repenting, or stopping sinning, or changing our lives, then we may as well accept that grace as an insurance policy for after we die, but then go on living as we always have. You can meet some so-called Christians who actually do that very thing \u2013 claim to be born again but then carry on life just as before. Paul explains that God\u2019s grace works very differently.
\n6:1 \tWhat shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
\nGod doesn\u2019t expect us to change so that he will then forgive us. Instead we need to realise just how wonderful God\u2019s amazing grace is. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. We are forgiven and accepted as God\u2019s children and have eternal life and the hope of sharing God\u2019s glory. When we take all these wonderful truths on board, then we will not want to continue sinning, we will WANT to change. J.B.Phillips translates it this way.
\n\u201cShall we sin to our heart\u2019s content and see how far we can exploit the grace of God? What a ghastly thought!\u201d
\nOf course we will want to live new and different lives now God has saved us. So how do we do that? In verses 11-14 Paul gives us three things to remember.
\n11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
\nThe first thing is to realise is this:<\/p>\n

YOU ARE DEAD TO SIN
\nIn verse 11 Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Jesus Christ
\nThis is the starting point for Christian living \u2013 to realise our true position and status before God. We are dead to sin. If we are dead to sin and alive to God then we won\u2019t want to keep on sinning. We will want to be different people! The challenge is simply to live lives consistent with our new nature and our destiny as Christians.
\nPreparing his son to become the Monarch, King George V would often remind Prince Edward VII, \u201cMy Dear Child, always remember who you are.\u201d And as Christians, we need always to remember who we are!
\n3 Or don\u2019t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
\nWe need to remember how our lives as Christians are indissolubly linked to the life and death and resurrection of Christ. So we shouldn\u2019t carry on living as we did before we were Christians, rebelling against God, ignoring God and rejecting God. Christ has come so that we COULD and we SHOULD live a new life, because we share in Christ\u2019s death and Christ\u2019s resurrection.
\n5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
\nGod has united us with Christ in his death, so that we can we set free from sin.
\n6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin\u2014 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. <\/p>\n

Christ died in our place on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, and in some amazing mystical spiritual way we share in that death. My old self, the person I was before I became a Christian, has died on the cross with Christ. So we are no longer prisoners of selfishness and disobedience and pride. That side of my character has been put to death with Christ on the cross.
\nAnd we are also united with Christ in his resurrection.
\n8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. <\/p>\n

Because I share in Christ\u2019s resurrection, I have a new life!
\n2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
\nGalatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
\nBut what does Paul mean when he says , \u201cwe have died to sin?\u201d The penalty of sin has gone \u2013 Jesus has paid the penalty. The power of sin has gone \u2013 God gives us a new power to live new lives. But the pull of sin is very much still there \u2013 we are now living life on a battleground! But Paul says, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, to consider or count ourselves as sharing in Christ\u2019s death and resurrection, and this is the secret of living a new life.
\nA young man went to an old preacher and asked, “How can I get victory over pride and criticism?”
\n The preacher said to him, “Go to the grave of Brother Jones and as you stand by the grave say all the nice things you can about him. Flatter him greatly.”
\n He did as the old preacher advised, When he returned the old preacher asked, “What did he say?”
\n The answer, “Nothing. He is dead.”
\n The old preacher then told the young man to go out to the grave and criticize Brother Jones. “Say mean things to him.”
\n When he came back the old preacher asked, “How did Brother Jones feel about what you said to him?”
\n The young preacher said, “He didn\u2019t feel anything. He’s dead!” <\/p>\n

When we are dead we won\u2019t care about other people\u2019s opinions of us. Success. Popularity. Fame. Reputation. So many things which matter so much to us in this life won\u2019t affect us in the least once we are dead! The temptations of pride and greed and envy and lust and anger won\u2019t have any pull on us once we are dead. Now we much consider ourselves dead to sin.
\n\u201cAll of you\u201d, says Paul, \u201cwho were baptised into Christ,\u201d \u201cbaptised into his death\u201d and \u201cburied with him through baptism\u201d. A brief aside: is Paul saying here that baptism is essential for salvation? We will have to talk about that another time, but I don\u2019t believe the Bible teaches that baptism is essential for a Christian, but I do believe that baptism as a believer is NORMAL for a Christian, as God\u2019s ordained way of showing that we are indeed united with Christ and sharing His death and resurrection.
\nSo step one is to realise we are dead to sin. The second stage to living a new life obviously follows.<\/p>\n

DON\u2019T GIVE IN TO SIN
\n12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
\nWe share in the benefits of Christ\u2019s death and resurrection which have broken the hold sin had over us. So now we have to say no to sin, to resist temptation. All our sinful words and actions begin as temptations. But sin isn\u2019t our master any more, God is! Sin shouldn\u2019t reign in us \u2013 it isn\u2019t King over our lives any more, God is! So we should revolt against sin and stand up for God and His kingdom.
\nAll our sinful actions start out as thoughts, as temptations, as we give in to evil desires. A single glance or a sound can start our mind down a road towards sin. That first thought is a temptation and we are all tempted as even Jesus was tempted. But that first thought is not sin. It becomes sin when we pursue the train of thought and turn the idea into reality. When we allow the thought to dwell within us and distract us from God \u2013 that is the sin. So if sin is not going to reign in our lives then we have to stop that first thought from ever turning into sin.
\nPaul points to two tricks the devil likes to use to encourage us to give in to temptation. The devil tries to fool us into thinking that sin is a good idea, or that sin is inescapable, so that we won\u2019t fight against it.
\n20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
\nThe devil\u2019s first con trick is to suggest to us that sinning brings better rewards than righteousness. It\u2019s crazy really that anybody would ever choose eternity in hell with the devil over eternity in heaven with God \u2013 but people fall for that con trick all the time. We think just this one sin won\u2019t matter \u2013 but of course it does! Sow a thought and reap an action, sow and action reap a habit, sow a habit reap a character, sow a character reap a destiny.
\nThe devil\u2019s second con trick is to convince us that we don\u2019t have any choice about whether we sin or not. But we DO have a choice. We CAN say no to sin and yes to God!
\n22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
\nSo God calls us to reject these deceptions of the devil and live a new life.
\n13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness,
\nThree practical suggestions of how to do this. We need to fill our minds with good things, with the word of God not the rubbish the media pumps out all the time. When temptation comes we need to call out to God in prayer for help. And we need to make a deliberate effort to avoid temptation. We cannot say, \u201clead us not into temptation,\u201d if we deliberately put ourselves in places where we know we will be tempted!
\nSo don\u2019t give in to sin. And thirdly
\nOFFER YOURSELF TO GOD
\n13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
\nGod has rescued us from death and given us new life. So we should offer ourselves to God. Alongside the negative aspect of avoiding sin, we should very positively give ourselves to God. We should make every effort to seek out God\u2019s blessing, and \u201cput ourselves in the way of blessing.\u201d Like Jacob who wrestled with God and would not let go of God until he had blessed him. Somebody once put it this way. \u201cThrow yourself entirely into the will of God. Seek God\u2019s very best.
\n16 Don\u2019t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey\u2014whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. <\/p>\n

We used to be slaves to sin. We were trapped by original sin and had this inward bias which meant we couldn\u2019t help doing wrong. Theologians have called this the state of \u201ctotal depravity\u201d \u2013 for ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But now we have the choice. Now we have the freedom to do what pleases God. So we should choose to serve God.
\n19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
\nOffer yourselves in slavery to righteousness. Look for opportunities to show God\u2019s love. Look for opportunities for Christian service, and for witnessing. Look for ways to grow in grace and in holiness. Offer yourself to God.
\nThere will be times when we fail, when we let God down and let other people down and let ourselves down. That\u2019s the time to remember God\u2019s grace.
\n23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. <\/p>\n

Remember that all God ever expects from us is failure. We go back to God in confession and say, \u201cLord I\u2019ve done it again,\u201d and God says back to us, \u201cDone what again?\u201d Because we have been justified \u2013 God has made it \u201cjust as if I\u2019d never sinned.\u201d Don\u2019t give up \u2013 live out the new life God has given you.
\n11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
\nYou are dead to sin \u2013 so don\u2019t give in to sin. Instead, offer yourself to God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone! We have been blessed in so many ways, not least in peace with God, a…<\/span><\/p>\n

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